The growing body of Dems who would, at a minimum, consider changing the primary calendar lost an ally yesterday — Howard Dean. Howard Dean lost the Iowa caucuses a year ago, but that doesn’t mean he wants to dump them as the first presidential nominating event in 2008 if he’s elected chairman of the Democratic […]
A rift seems to have developed of late between those who see the race for the DNC chairperson job as the most important decision the party could possibly make vs. those who see the race — and the job — as fairly meaningless. I don’t usually care for a split-the-difference approach, but I find myself […]
At this point, virtually no one is trying to defend the Bush administration’s use of $241,000 — of our money — to pay Armstrong Williams. It’s the first Bush debacle in a long time that Republicans everywhere have been willing to criticize. That is, except for one. To recap the opposition, Rep. John Boehner, an […]
If you haven’t seen Orrin Hatch’s article in the National Review on Bush’s judicial nominees and Dem filibusters, you should definitely take a look. Kevin Drum accuses Hatch of using a “self-servingly selective memory.” If anything, that’s putting it mildly. The entire diatribe is a lengthy mess, filled with contradictions, distortions, and errors of fact, […]
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the new chair of the DCCC, seems to have stumbled upon an interesting twist in the Bush administration’s opposition to reimportation of prescription medication: cows. At this point, the administration believes the U.S. should continue to import Canadian beef, despite recent incidents of mad-cow disease. Simultaneously, the administration believes the U.S. cannot […]
Yesterday’s White House press briefing was largely predictable, though the press corps seemed a little feistier than usual in response to news that the U.S. is no longer even looking for WMD in Iraq. Scott McClellan was apparently expecting the questions, but when reporters weren’t buying the spin, he pulled out his big gun. See […]
Considering the merit of Bush’s idea, the opposition he’s likely to face, and the enormous political risks involved, it’s only natural for many to wonder if the president has completely lost his mind by launching a campaign to privatize Social Security. Mark Schmitt, however, raised a compelling point (via Wampum) that some in the White […]
Love him or hate him (I’m in the latter camp), Newt Gingrich reigned over the House with a clear vision for change. Because Tom DeLay followed in Newt’s footsteps as the chamber’s most powerful member, the conventional wisdom tells us that DeLay is carrying on the Gingrich/Contract with America tradition. In this case, however, the […]
I’m dreading Bush’s inauguration as much as the next guy, but I’m afraid this doesn’t make any sense. It’s called “Not One Damn Dime Day,” and it means just that. Proponents urge Americans not to spend any money on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, to protest President Bush’s policies in Iraq and the estimated $30 million […]
In light of revelations that the Bush administration gave Armstrong Williams $241,000 to plug Bush’s education policies, the White House insisted that this instance of using public to influence media figures was an isolated incident. That turns out not to be true. Has Bush paid off other American pundits? Maybe. Williams himself insists “there are […]